Tuesday

Bruce Indek isn’t just an average chiropractor. In addition to humans, he works out the kinks in horses and dogs.

BRUCE INDEK

When Dr. Bruce Indek evaluates a potential patient, he watches as his 1,500-pound client is placed on lunge line, and trotted in different directions – first clockwise, later counterclockwise.

Indek know that how a horse moves holds the key to a mystery. The length of the gait, the position of the head, the favored legs when walking, they all help him to identify and diagnosis the source of the animal’s pain.

“He’s come out three times to see my horse, and each time she’s improved,” said Tara Devine, owner of Hanson Grain in Hanson, who’s called on Indek to treat some lameness in her horse. “Her stride is more even, she’s trotting better and traveling straighter.”

Indek is no horse whisperer. He’s not a veterinarian. He’s a chiropractor who has turned a lifelong interest in animals into a lucrative venture. Whether he’s treating hip dysplasia in a Great Dane or disc problems with a dressage horse, Indek said he’s been reinvigorated since expanding his business into animal chiropractic last year.

“All my people patients keep saying to me, ‘You’re going to leave us, you like this too much,’” Indek said.

Indek, 53, has always looked for exciting side projects to help him grow professionally. He has worked as a cast chiropractor for traveling musicals such as “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera” when they were on the Boston leg of their tour. The Cohasset resident, whose office is in Quincy, is also in his 26th year as a volunteer chiropractic coordinator for the Boston Marathon.

Indek started his latest ancillary venture after taking 215 hours of training at the Options for Animals Chiropractic College in Kansas from 2007 to 2008, following the urging of his son’s riding instructor.

Since finishing the training, which he estimates cost him roughly $15,000 in travel and tuition, Indek has been making house and barn calls on his quadruped patients.

“They love it,” Indek said. “Horses will lean on you because the pressure feels good from the adjustments. Dogs will turn over on their back and put their feet up, they like it so much.”

When it comes to his equine patients, Indek treats both horse and rider, believing that problems with the rider’s posture and back translate to the horse. He brings his chiropractic table on barn visits and works out the rider’s kinks.

Although 90 percent of his patients are people, he’s hoping to expand his canine and equestrian clients to the point where they make up 30 percent of his business. Best of all, Indek said he’s providing pet owners with a valuable service.

“It’s an alternative that you can use that can help animals become healthier and live a longer life,” he said.

Brent Lang may be reached at blang@ledger.com.

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